Meta Title and Meta Description Without a Plugin

I am using the GeneratePress and I am kinda obsessed with reducing the number of plugins so I am always trying to find a substitute for them.

When it comes to SEO Plugins, I think that you can keep things as simple as possible by using SLIM SEO

If you think that even a simple and lightweight plugin like SLIM SEO is too much for you, you might want to go take the coding route.

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Original Code

This is a code provided by Tom from GeneratePress. it outputs a meta title and meta description that can be read by search engines.

You just have to add the code to your functions.php file.

add_action( 'wp_head', function() {
    if ( is_singular() ) {
        $meta_title = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'meta_title', true );
        $meta_desc = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'meta_description', true );

        if ( $meta_title ) {
            printf( '<meta name="title" content="%s">', $meta_title );
        }

        if ( $meta_desc ) {
            printf( '<meta name="description" content="%s">', $meta_desc );
        }
    }
} );

You can use Advanced Custom Fields to create those two fields if you don’t want to complicate yourself.

But that still requires a plugin.

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First Step: Meta Title and Meta Description without a Plugin

Add the following code to your functions.php file

add_action( 'wp_head', function() {
    if ( is_singular() ) {
        $post_id = get_the_ID();

        // Set meta title to post title if custom meta title is not set
        $meta_title = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_title', true );
        if ( ! $meta_title ) {
            $meta_title = get_the_title( $post_id );
        }

        // Set meta description to first 160 characters of post content, stripped of HTML tags, if custom meta description is not set
        $meta_desc = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_description', true );
        if ( ! $meta_desc ) {
            $post_content = get_post_field( 'post_content', $post_id );
            $meta_desc = mb_substr( wp_strip_all_tags( $post_content ), 0, 160 );
        }

        // Replace newline characters with spaces
        $meta_desc = str_replace( "\n", " ", $meta_desc );

        // Replace multiple spaces with a single space
        $meta_desc = preg_replace( '/\s+/', ' ', $meta_desc );

        // Output meta title and meta description
        if ( $meta_title ) {
            printf( '<meta name="title" content="%s">', $meta_title );
            echo "\n";  // Add a line break
        }

        if ( $meta_desc ) {
            printf( '<meta name="description" content="%s">', $meta_desc );
			echo "\n";  // Add a line break
        }
    }
} );

This code:

• Outputs the custom meta title
• Outputs the custom meta description
• Outputs the post title if there is a custom meta title
• Outputs the first 160 characters if there is a custom meta description
• Display meta titles and meta descriptions in different lines

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Second Step: Creating Custom Fields

To use that code, keep in mind that you have to create two custom fields:

#1	Meta Title
#2	Meta Description

Here is another code snippet that can create both custom fields at the end of your posts.

function add_seo_custom_fields() {
  add_meta_box(
    'seo_custom_fields', // Unique ID
    'SEO', // Box title
    'render_seo_custom_fields', // Content callback, must be of type callable
    'post', // Post type
    'normal', // Context
    'high' // Priority
  );
}
add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'add_seo_custom_fields' );

function render_seo_custom_fields( $post ) {
  $meta_title = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'meta_title', true );
  $meta_description = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'meta_description', true );
  wp_nonce_field( basename( __FILE__ ), 'seo_custom_fields_nonce' );
  ?>
  <p>
    <label for="meta_title"><strong>Meta Title:</strong></label><br>
    <input type="text" name="meta_title" id="meta_title" maxlength="60" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $meta_title ); ?>" style="width: 100%">
  </p>
  <p>
    <label for="meta_description"><strong>Meta Description:</strong></label><br>
    <textarea name="meta_description" id="meta_description" maxlength="160" style="width: 100%"><?php echo esc_textarea( $meta_description ); ?></textarea>
  </p>
  <?php
}

function save_seo_custom_fields( $post_id ) {
  $is_autosave = wp_is_post_autosave( $post_id );
  $is_revision = wp_is_post_revision( $post_id );
  $is_valid_nonce = ( isset( $_POST[ 'seo_custom_fields_nonce' ] ) && wp_verify_nonce( $_POST[ 'seo_custom_fields_nonce' ], basename( __FILE__ ) ) ) ? 'true' : 'false';

  if ( $is_autosave || $is_revision || !$is_valid_nonce ) {
    return;
  }

  if ( isset( $_POST[ 'meta_title' ] ) ) {
    update_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_title', sanitize_text_field( $_POST[ 'meta_title' ] ) );
  }
  if ( isset( $_POST[ 'meta_description' ] ) ) {
    update_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_description', sanitize_text_field( $_POST[ 'meta_description' ] ) );
  }
}
add_action( 'save_post', 'save_seo_custom_fields' );

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Third Step: Adding SEO Columns

If you want to check the meta titles and meta descriptions in the admin post lists section, add this code to your functions.php file.

//Adding SEO Custom Columns
function seo_custom_columns( $columns ) {
  $columns['meta_title'] = 'Meta Title';
  $columns['meta_description'] = 'Meta Description';
  return $columns;
}
add_filter( 'manage_posts_columns', 'seo_custom_columns' );

function seo_custom_columns_content( $column, $post_id ) {
  switch ( $column ) {
    case 'meta_title':
      $meta_title = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_title', true );
      echo esc_html( $meta_title );
      break;
    case 'meta_description':
      $meta_description = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_description', true );
      echo esc_html( $meta_description );
      break;
  }
}
add_action( 'manage_posts_custom_column', 'seo_custom_columns_content', 10, 2 );

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Keep this Mind

Test these codes on a copy of your site (staging site) and make sure they do what they are meant to do.

I have used them and they work for me but all sites are different so play with them in a local environment first, check the source code, and verify that the code works in a third-party tool like MetaTags.io

If you have the skills, modify the codes and make those functions better if possible.

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Other Resources

You might want to check some of these resources

• Adding Custom Meta Descriptions To WordPress Posts Without Using A Plugin

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More Code Snippets

There are more code snippets where this came from.

• How to Add Article Schema without a Plugin
• How to Add Breadcrumbs Schema without a Plugin
• How to Customize WordPress Native Sitemaps
• How to Redirect Author Pages in WordPress
• How to Stop WordPress From Guessing URLs
• GeneratePress Hooks: Simple Guide
• How to Delay The Execution of JavaScript without a Plugin

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